<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if IE 8]><html class="no-js lt-ie9" lang="en" > <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js" lang="en" > <!--<![endif]-->

<!-- Mirrored from minetest.gitlab.io/minetest/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:46:04 GMT -->
<!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack -->
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <meta name="description" content="None">
  
  
  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="img/favicon.ico">
  <title>Minetest API Documentation</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:400,700|Roboto+Slab:400,700|Inconsolata:400,700" />

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/theme.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/theme_extra.css" />
  <link href="css/code_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
  <link href="css/extra.css" rel="stylesheet" />
  
  <script>
    // Current page data
    var mkdocs_page_name = "Home";
    var mkdocs_page_input_path = "index.md";
    var mkdocs_page_url = null;
  </script>
  
  <script src="js/jquery-2.1.1.min.js" defer></script>
  <script src="js/modernizr-2.8.3.min.js" defer></script> 
  
</head>

<body class="wy-body-for-nav" role="document">

  <div class="wy-grid-for-nav">

    
    <nav data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-side stickynav">
    <div class="wy-side-scroll">
      <div class="wy-side-nav-search">
        <a href="index.html" class="icon icon-home"> Minetest API Documentation</a>
        <div role="search">
  <form id ="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="http://minetest.gitlab.io/minetest/search.html" method="get">
    <input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" title="Type search term here" />
  </form>
</div>
      </div>

      <div class="wy-menu wy-menu-vertical" data-spy="affix" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
                <ul class="current">
                    <li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="reference internal current" href="index.html">Home</a>
    <ul class="current">
    <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
    </li>
    <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#programming-in-lua">Programming in Lua</a>
    </li>
    <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#startup">Startup</a>
    </li>
    <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#paths">Paths</a>
    </li>
    </ul>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="games/index.html">Games</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="mods/index.html">Mods</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="aliases/index.html">Aliases</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="textures/index.html">Textures</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="sounds/index.html">Sounds</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="registered-definitions/index.html">Registered definitions</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="nodes/index.html">Nodes</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="map-terminology-and-coordinates/index.html">Map terminology and coordinates</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="hud/index.html">HUD</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="representations-of-simple-things/index.html">Representations of simple things</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="flag-specifier-format/index.html">Flag Specifier Format</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="items/index.html">Items</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="groups/index.html">Groups</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tools/index.html">Tools</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="entity-damage-mechanism/index.html">Entity damage mechanism</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="metadata/index.html">Metadata</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="formspec/index.html">Formspec</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="inventory/index.html">Inventory</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="colors/index.html">Colors</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="escape-sequences/index.html">Escape sequences</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="spatial-vectors/index.html">Spatial Vectors</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="helper-functions/index.html">Helper functions</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="translations/index.html">Translations</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="perlin-noise/index.html">Perlin noise</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="ores/index.html">Ores</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="decoration-types/index.html">Decoration types</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="schematics/index.html">Schematics</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="lua-voxel-manipulator/index.html">Lua Voxel Manipulator</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="mapgen-objects/index.html">Mapgen objects</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="registered-entities/index.html">Registered entities</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="l-system-trees/index.html">L-system trees</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="minetest-namespace-reference/index.html">'minetest' namespace reference</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="class-reference/index.html">Class reference</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <ul>
                    <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="definition-tables/index.html">Definition tables</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
      </div>
    </div>
    </nav>

    <section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap">

      
      <nav class="wy-nav-top" role="navigation" aria-label="top navigation">
        <i data-toggle="wy-nav-top" class="fa fa-bars"></i>
        <a href="index.html">Minetest API Documentation</a>
      </nav>

      
      <div class="wy-nav-content">
        <div class="rst-content">
          <div role="navigation" aria-label="breadcrumbs navigation">
  <ul class="wy-breadcrumbs">
    <li><a href="index.html">Docs</a> &raquo;</li>
    
      
    
    <li>Home</li>
    <li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside">
      
    </li>
  </ul>
  
  <hr/>
</div>
          <div role="main">
            <div class="section">
              
                <h1 id="minetest-lua-modding-api-reference">Minetest Lua Modding API Reference<a class="headerlink" href="#minetest-lua-modding-api-reference" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h1>
<ul>
<li>More information at <a href="http://www.minetest.net/">http://www.minetest.net/</a></li>
<li>Developer Wiki: <a href="http://dev.minetest.net/">http://dev.minetest.net/</a></li>
<li>(Unofficial) Minetest Modding Book by rubenwardy: <a href="https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/">https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction<a class="headerlink" href="#introduction" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<p>Content and functionality can be added to Minetest using Lua scripting
in run-time loaded mods.</p>
<p>A mod is a self-contained bunch of scripts, textures and other related
things, which is loaded by and interfaces with Minetest.</p>
<p>Mods are contained and ran solely on the server side. Definitions and media
files are automatically transferred to the client.</p>
<p>If you see a deficiency in the API, feel free to attempt to add the
functionality in the engine and API, and to document it here.</p>
<h2 id="programming-in-lua">Programming in Lua<a class="headerlink" href="#programming-in-lua" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<p>If you have any difficulty in understanding this, please read
<a href="http://www.lua.org/pil/">Programming in Lua</a>.</p>
<h2 id="startup">Startup<a class="headerlink" href="#startup" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<p>Mods are loaded during server startup from the mod load paths by running
the <code>init.lua</code> scripts in a shared environment.</p>
<h2 id="paths">Paths<a class="headerlink" href="#paths" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><code>RUN_IN_PLACE=1</code> (Windows release, local build)<ul>
<li><code>$path_user</code>: <code>&lt;build directory&gt;</code></li>
<li><code>$path_share</code>: <code>&lt;build directory&gt;</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>RUN_IN_PLACE=0</code>: (Linux release)<ul>
<li><code>$path_share</code>:<ul>
<li>Linux: <code>/usr/share/minetest</code></li>
<li>Windows: <code>&lt;install directory&gt;/minetest-0.4.x</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>$path_user</code>:<ul>
<li>Linux: <code>$HOME/.minetest</code></li>
<li>Windows: <code>C:/users/&lt;user&gt;/AppData/minetest</code> (maybe)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
              
            </div>
          </div>
          <footer>
  
    <div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="footer navigation">
      
        <a href="games/index.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="Games">Next <span class="icon icon-circle-arrow-right"></span></a>
      
      
    </div>
  

  <hr/>

  <div role="contentinfo">
    <!-- Copyright etc -->
    
  </div>

  Built with <a href="https://www.mkdocs.org/">MkDocs</a> using a <a href="https://github.com/snide/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a> provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org/">Read the Docs</a>.
</footer>
      
        </div>
      </div>

    </section>

  </div>

  <div class="rst-versions" role="note" aria-label="versions">
    <span class="rst-current-version" data-toggle="rst-current-version">
      
      
      
        <span style="margin-left: 15px"><a href="games/index.html" style="color: #fcfcfc">Next &raquo;</a></span>
      
    </span>
</div>
    <script>var base_url = 'index.html';</script>
    <script src="js/theme.js" defer></script>
      <script src="search/main.js" defer></script>
    <script defer>
        window.onload = function () {
            SphinxRtdTheme.Navigation.enable(true);
        };
    </script>

</body>

<!-- Mirrored from minetest.gitlab.io/minetest/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:46:14 GMT -->
</html>

<!--
MkDocs version : 1.1.2
Build Date UTC : 2020-10-01 08:34:58.710953+00:00
-->
